The Arctic

The Arctic is something that is in grave danger of being lost forever. Already, the past seven years have seen the lowest minimum sea ice coverage ever recorded and this year has joined the list. The repercussions are serious, and further decline of the Arctic sea ice can spiral towards fatal consequences. It is clear that the human footprint has profoundly altered the planet in ways that we never imagined.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center in the US has announced yesterday that Arctic sea ice had reached its annual minimum. It is, as we guessed last week, the second lowest extent in recorded history, just behind the all-time...

This afternoon I was on watch. Bear watch.
Whenever there are people out on the ice, it’s necessary for a couple of people at least, and more if there’s fog, to be keeping a look out. On these occasions there’s usually one person up...

This month sees the Arctic sea ice minimum, a litmus test for the health of the global climate, with indications suggesting the extent in 2011 could be the lowest level ever.
Arctic sea ice acts like the planet’s air...

A few months ago I took the train down from London to Cambridge with my colleague Frida Bengtsson, who is leading this expedition, so that we could meet up with Professor Peter Wadhams. As head of the University’s ‘Polar Ocean Physics...

Everything north of Holland was new territory for me. I’d never seen the ice and could barely imagine it. When I asked a shipmate of mine what it was like, he said, you feel how old it is, how untouched. I was on watch when the first...

We sometimes feel like we're repeating ourselves when we talk about Arctic sea ice - because we are. In recent months, sea ice extent has been again reaching record lows - right now, it's at a second-low record, just behind the 2007...